Washing Machine Flooded Apartment

30 minutes after starting the washing machine I came out to the family room whereI found the drain hose from the washing machine became disconnected and had flooded the apartment.

What needs to be done to properly fix this mess? My land lord is going to replace the part of the carpet padding that got wet, and set up one fan, but does more need to be done? There was a good 1.5 inches of standing water in there before i was able to bail all of it into the sink (took an hour, but i was impressed in my bailing ability). Also it leaked through to my down stairs neighbors.

I am very concerned with mold growth. What should I do?

 

It's in the hands of your landlord but you need to thoroughly dry anything that got wet. Open up the ceiling from the floor below, remove the wet drywall, remove the wet insulation and let the floor boards dry out before closing everything back in.

 

From the family room, it eventually went past the towels.


You can see the washing machine at the back of the kitchen.




Me splashing so you can see the water. I apologize for my ogre feet.

 

I would move...lots involved to properly fix that mess. Professional clean up job at the least

 

I'm assuming all the carpet has been torn up that got wet, correct? You might see some water being retained in the wood base and some staining on the drywall at the wall base. Just keep air circulating, get a dehumidifier if you don't already have one and try to dry the place out.

 

Carpet guy just got here. I do not have a dehumidifier. I don't think they plan on replacing the carpet, only the wet padding.

 

They don't have to replace it. Our basement flooded a couple times, the pros ripped up the carpet, brought it to a warehouse, dried it out really well, put down a new pad and put the same carpet back. If it's still in good shape, it can be reused.

 

First if the drain hose issue was a fault of the landlord then he is ultimately responsible. If that proves to be the case then I would make sure that he hires a mold abatement contractor to make sure there is no mold. Mold is not to be taken lightly. Ive inhaled mold and I had a severe asthma attack that required me to go the ER. My father also inhaled mold while doing a building inspection on a site where the first floor deck had been soaked several times and mold formed in the floor joists. It put him out for 3 weeks and had to have his lungs essentially pressure washed, not fun.
Also make sure that the drain pipe is not cloaked with lint, hair which can also cause a backup.

 

well, if you haven't had the carpet ripped up yet, you can do what some people down the street from us did when I was growing up

get an army of neighbors with wet/dry shop vacs and go at it. and keep going till they are dry, open all doors and windows and get a lot of fans. I can't say anything about mold etc...

but that is how they dealt with it.

 

Carpet ripped up, sort of:



They took out all of the padding above the wet concrete, then put the carpet back down on the concrete. They plan to get an air handler in here in 1.5 hours. It's a carpet cleaning guy that's handling this, not sure how I feel about that.

 

Air handler is now blowing air under the carpet, it looks like little waves. Do you guys think this being taken care of properly? I believe the carpet will be fine, only concern now is the drywall behind the base boards, but the carpet guy says i shouldnt worry because the water did not travel up the drywall. All you can see is water damage on the bottom half of the base board. Ive got windows open and bathroom exhaust fans on.

 

Did they tear the pad up or just put those fans under the carpet?

 

They removed the pad that was on top of wet concrete, the rest of the pad remains, but I hope that portion of the pad did not get wet.

 

Just make sure they removed any pad that got wet. Carpet padding is cheap enough where you can over do it and just replace a little extra if needed.

Do the fans look like this or did they just bring box fans?

 

^looks like that. Also in the air pick up for our central air I found pre existing mold/mildew, not sure which. Super pissed. How does one properly remove it. The in house handyman wants to spray it with bleach.

 

If it's in the ductwork, the ducts probably need a cleaning.

 

Carpet cleaners are usually water/disaster clean up as well. As long as its a good company I would trust they are doing it right

Edit: For the carpet and pad portion. Im not so sure about the central air duct though

 

Well management and I had a talk, I think their going to send someone to clean the ducts, but we exchanged a few words. I was originally told that if I'm not sick then its not a problem. Ooo that got me pissed.

 

Wow, they act like it doesnt take time for an illness to develop, mold is serious

 

Yes, bleach is used to remove mold.